Back to the Occupation

With apologies to those who have commented and left stars and hearts for the photo of the children I posted early in the day, I am changing the photo to one made at the "OccupyICEPDX" encampment. The camp has grown incredibly since I was last there on Monday morning. At that time there were two empty tents and three rather dazed, very young people. Now there are over a hundred tents, several hundred people, and an astonishing outpouring of organized effort. There's a huge fully functional kitchen, a medical tent, a "Quiet" tent, a kid's tent, a library, and a security force. There was one portable toilet; now there are four, including one with a sign on it saying it is the gift of one of the unions in town. The flag of the USA was taken down and replaced with one that says "Refugees Welcome. Bring the family." 

Attendance swells to 500 or more in the evenings for General Assemblies and vigils. Portland kitchens have delivered so much food to the camp that organizers had to beg them to stop; unhoused people have been invited to come take some of the overflow food to share with their encampments. The camp is alcohol-free and drug-free, and the security team enforces those rules. 

The local ICE office has temporarily halted operations, and the mayor has refused to send the local police. However there is some unease in the camp, concern that the strong arm of the Federal government may show up at some point. If you'd like to see more, I've had mixed luck with links to Facebook albums, but I will try again--maybe you can see more photos here. I am going to be at the encampment again tomorrow and Sunday, documenting as much of it as I can. Many of the people I saw today are friends since the original Occupy in 2011, but for security reasons, many people are understandably cautious about photographs. I'm asking permission for closeups and am allowing my crowd shots to be slightly fuzzy, or focusing on some foreground object with just an impression of the crowd behind it. I plan to go back in the morning.